Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is Recommended!

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drawing of a hand placing a ballot into a brown wood dropbox through the slit at top

At our January Full Committee meeting, following Delegate Sally Hudson’s introductory overview and Q&A, we passed a resolution recommending that the City adopt RCV for all City Council primary and general elections.
The City has yet to hold any public discussions about adoption of RCV, and the reality is that our software couldn’t be ready to handle RCV until this April, too late to try to safely use RCV for the June primary. If the City decides to adopt RCV, its earliest possible use would be for the November City Council elections.

Primary Races are Starting to Take Shape

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Photo of a piece of paper with a red checkmark above a ballot box with the words Primary Elections written in big letters
Several prospective candidates (so far) have announced for the two upcoming November primary races, listed here in alphabetical order:
As a matter of policy, the Cville Dems can’t take sides in primaries, but we do pass on information about candidates’ public events as the candidates share them with us.

Comings and Goings

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At our January Full Committee meeting we welcomed Laura Shea from Clark Precinct as a member of the Full Committee and also got to meet the UVA Dems’ new President Vincent Kloes (kloes@virginia.edu); we’re looking forward to working with both of them!
Two significant changes to announce, much to our regret:
  • This month Anne Hemenway announced her resignation from the Charlottesville Electoral Board. Anne has served with great distinction for eight years, tirelessly working with her Democratic and Republican colleagues alike to keep our electoral system working efficiently and fairly for all. We owe Anne a huge vote of thanks for this dedicated service. Jim Nix, who has finished his own 3-year term, will serve out the last year of Anne’s term, after which we’ll need to nominate a new Democratic member to serve on the Board.
  • Dashad Cooper announced his resignation as our Co-Chair in order to pursue elected office in the House of Delegates. We thank Dashad for his excellent service keeping things running smoothly, including handling most of the diplomatic outreach work needed to expand our party.

Proposed Changes to Cville Precincts (Update)

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Brightly colored Map showing 2023 proposed redrawn Charlottesville precinctsThe proposal to replace polling places Alumni Hall and Tonsler with new polling places Charlottesville High School and Jackson-Via, and to redraw the lines of all current precincts in the City of Charlottesville, was presented to City Council on January 17th.

Jim Nix and Registrar Taylor Yowell explained at our November meeting that these changes were motivated by issues like population shifts and problems with location, building size, and parking.

The proposal will move through a discussion and public comment process before Council votes on it.

The General Assembly is in Session!

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Interior photo of Virginia state legislature
A lot is happening between now and February 27th! If you want, you can follow things (play along!) from home by watching the House and Senate floor and committee livestreams through the links given on this General Assembly website page. And to understand how the VA legislative system works, check out the Albemarle Dems’ wonderful 9-pager “What Do Your Elected Officials Actually Vote For?” (aka LIS 101).

Voter Protection Update

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Photo of two masked poll workers — a black woman and a white man — standing next to a yellow sign in English and SpanishNow that DPVA has suspended its voter protection work, that work falls to us locals! Kristin Clarens, Jeremy Jones, and Bekah Saxon are spearheading this very important work; if you’d like more information, or might want to volunteer to help with voter protection, please contact: bekah saxon at gmail.com